Harry D.
Downing

Professor
of Physics

Chair,
Department of Physics and Astronomy

Education and Experience

My
B.S. in Physics was obtained from the ArkansasStateUniversity in 1968. I
immediately began graduate work at the FloridaStateUniversity and received
my M.S. in Physics in 1970 and my Ph.D. in Physics in 1973. Both involved
research in infrared spectroscopy of gaseous CO2.

From
1973-75 I worked as a post-doctoral student at the KansasStateUniversity where I
conducted infrared spectroscopy studies on various liquids.

In
1975 I joined the faculty in the Department of Physics at StephenF.AustinStateUniversity. Since 1988 I
have served as chair of the Department of Physics and Astronomy.

Research Interests

My
latest research efforts involves the near-normal
incidence infrared reflectance studies of aqueous solutions of acids, salts,
bases, etc. I perform a Kramers-Kronig analysis of the reflectances to generate
the absorption and refraction indices which are useful in the calculation of
the scattering of infrared radiation from planetary aerosols.